Listen to songs, folkloric stories and the last speaker of Wampanoag dialect on the APS Native American Sound Recordings page.

“There’s a bright future with traditions being brought back to life, though we have to discuss protocols. This is a mutually-beneficial relationship. For language teachers, we can give these recordings back to them in digital formats for language preservation and cultural revitalization.

“One teacher told me, ‘When we speak our own language, we think in our own language, which makes that time connect with this time.’ There’s a sense of history, that even though these recordings are from 70 years ago, we can hear them better now and share them more easily and inexpensively.

“For example, the Mandan language currently has one fluent speaker, but we have recorded 237 hours of it. Access and preservation is more than conversion, because now you can tell the exact data. We also received a Getty grant to review the 110,000 Native American images at APS. Multiple archives should work together, [now] Native People could create their own exhibits.”

Q&A with Timothy Powell and Prof. Robert Miller-Is there portable scanning equipment?
Powell: The Ojibwe work with the Minnesota Historical Society to digitize materials at a high quality, including Objibwe newspapers. Tribes have taped their own materials, should those go to APS? We do receive APS grant materials, for example Phillips Fund materials are deposited at the APS.

-When was the change from adapting to Native American languages to English-language assimilation?
Miller: English colonial rule was the big factor, I don’t know about French and Spanish rule. In the mid-to-late 1900s, schools still punished students for speaking the Native languages. Now, revitalization of language leads to healing from genocide, which has trans-generational consequences. The Bureau of Indian Affairs eliminated Native languages in 1868, and in 1885 required all communication in English. When materials are given back to tribes, they are given new life.

-What’s the protocol for listening to and obtaining materials?
Powell: Just call us, I can visit the reservations.
Miller: The Native American Advisory Board has established that tribes can have password-protected access, and to ensure respect – you don’t want to have videos pop up on YouTube with wacky music.